THE MELBOURNE AND PATTAYA MESSAGES IN CONTEXT (May-June 1980)

Abstract

Seventy years after the first world missionary conference at Edinburgh (1910) three major world missionary conferences were planned, which in one way or another are a continuation of the first one.The World Council of Churches organised a conference on World Mission and Evangelism at Melbourne, Australia, May 12-24, 1980.The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization held a consultation on World Evangelization at Pattaya, Thailand, June 16-27, 1980.An ad hoc group of mission agencies will convene a world consultation on Frontier Missions, October 27-November 1, 1980 at Edinburgh, Scotland.A comparative evaluation of these world missionary conferences as regards their sponsorship, orientation and goals would be most valuable, but will not be attempted here. We merely present the message and statement issued at the closing of the Melbourne and Pattaya meeting respectively. However, some general information about these conferences will provide some insight into the context of each message. The author was present at both conferences, in Melbourne as fraternal delegate and in Pattaya as observer on behalf of the International Association for Mission Studies.